For perfectly round scoops with minimal hassle, you can’t beat the classic Zeroll scoop. It produces gorgeous scoops out of even the densest of desserts. Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter.
As a “cold-scrape” model, the double-insulated freezer bowl easily fits into the base, the mixing paddle fits into that, and then the plastic cover holds everything together. As the bowl spins, the paddle scrapes frozen batter from the interior walls, incorporating it back into the mixture. After about 20 minutes, our home tester had fully churned ice cream that resembled soft serve. At that point, you do need to get everything into the freezer quickly to avoid crystallization. The classic Cuisinart Pure Indulgence makes up to two quarts of perfectly thick, velvety-smooth ice cream or sorbet in as little as 25 minutes. And there’s really no manual work required — an integrated motor spins the mixing paddle inside the double-insulated freezer bowl to autonomously create the frozen treat.
Consequently, homemade ice cream tends to have between 30 and 40% overrun and is very dense and creamy, more like gelato. Finally at the bottom is the Breville Smart Scoop which made the poorest quality ice cream of all the machines I’ve tested. With all the other ice cream makers, there’s not a huge amount of difference cgwm-081 in the quality of the ice cream they produce. In my tests the ICE-100 definitely made smoother ice cream than the Smart Scoop. While you certainly don’t need all these automatic settings and extra features to make great frozen desserts, they can make things a little easier, especially when you’re starting out.
For some reason, freezer bowl machines are usually louder than compressor machines. So the ice cream, gelato and sorbet from the slow freezing compressor machines is less smooth. With these machines you pack a load of ice and salt around a churning canister full of mixture to freeze the ice cream. Often, ice cream recipes require you to cook the base over low heat in a saucepan before adding it to your machine. It’s shallow, which Sobotik said allows your mixture to cook faster, and it has a rounded bottom that makes stirring liquid easier.
At 30 pounds, this isn’t the easiest ice cream maker to move into storage. But the Smart Scoop gives you the ability to tweak your ice cream until its just right, and ensures you’ll get cgwm-081 smooth results every time. Breville’s Smart Scoop ice cream maker is jam-packed with enough features to satisfy everyone, from ice cream newbies to the most hardcore gelato aficionados.
“For vegan ice creams, adding a little vodka to the mix before churning helps produce smoother, more scoopable ice cream because the vodka prevents it from freezing so hard,” explains Coatney. “I always recommend mastering vanilla ice cream before moving on to more complicated flavors,” saysEllen Coatney, creator and owner of Fifth Scoop. The average warranty for manufacturing defects on most ice cream makers is one year, although you may find some with longer or shorter warranty periods. Read the fine print before purchasing, as the extended warranties typically start at the date of purchase but can’t be used until the manufacturer’s warranty has expired. The Cuisinart ICE-70 Electronic Ice Cream Maker is our top pick because of its useful features, especially the gelato setting and built-in timer.
In as little as 25 minutes, this device makes two quarts of your favorite ice cream, sorbet, gelato, or frozen yogurt. Since it’s all homemade, you’ll know exactly what’s going in it—so you won’t be left second-guessing if you have any food sensitivities or allergies. All you need to do is add the ingredients, turn the machine on, and the Cuisinart handles the rest. This is a genuine item that is supplied by the original equipment manufacturer. It is specially designed for use with Cuisinart frozen yogurt ice cream and sorbet makers. This is an identical replacement for a missing or a faulty paddle that was installed on a new unit.